It wasn’t pretty, but the No. 22 Texas Longhorns managed to hold off the West Virginia Mountaineers, 17-13, to move to 4-2 in conference play and keep their hopes of a berth in the championship game alive. As has been the case for the last few games, the Longhorns got a solid performance from their defense, keeping them in the contest when the offense struggled.
Texas Defense: 43 rushing yards, 1.7 yards per carry
The West Virginia offense is normally paced by the ground game and running back Leddie Brown and the Texas defense made a concerted effort to shut down the Mountaineers. Even if you add back in the 15 yards of sacks for a total of 58 rushing yards, it was the Mountaineers’ lowest rushing output of the season and the second-lowest game from the Texas defense. Under Tom Herman, the Longhorns are 17-2 when holding an opponent under 100 yards rushing, including a perfect 12-0 over the last three seasons.
Coming into the contest Saturday, Brown was averaging 115.67 yards per game and 5.51 yards per carry on the ground for WVU. His 47 yards on 15 carries for 3.1 yards per carry were his lowest numbers of the year, but managed to extend his touchdown streak to five consecutive games.
Bijan Robinson: 12 att, 113 yards (9.4 ypc)
With the injury to Keaontay Ingram, freshman phenom Bijan Robinson literally burst onto the scene in the start Saturday, taking the first play from scrimmage 54 yards to put Texas in the red zone. That game-opening burst was the longest play from scrimmage this year and the third-longest play of the Tom Herman era.
Robinson saw the field less often than many would like for the remainder of the game, but still managed to turn in the first 100-yard game from a running back this season on his 12 carries. The 113 yards was the highest total from a Texas running back since game nine of last year — a tight win over Kansas State. With his day, Robinson actually joins his backfield partners Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram all with at least one 100-yard performances in their freshman year under Tom Herman.
DeMarvion Overshown: 8 tackles, 2 TFL, Sack, Forced Fumble, PBU
After moving to linebacker this offseason, the junior had a bit of a learning curve early, but seems to settle in over the last several games and has developed into a contributor for the Longhorns. Overshown has had at least five tackles in his last five games, totaling 36 of his 42 total tackles over the last five contests.
One advantage of moving Overshown to linebacker from safety was the ability to leverage his skills in both pass defense and run defense, which has paid off recently. Overshown has had at least one pass broken up in five of the last seven games, while his career-high two tackles for loss pushed him to third on the team with 6.5 on the season.
With the win, the Longhorns head into their final bye of the year with a shot to close the season strong and end in the Big 12 Championship game. Texas has a lot to fix in the off week, with several players on the mend as well.